Upfront – LRG: Nearly half of all U.S. households have a DVR

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG) found that 44 percent of TV households in the United States have at least one DVR, and one-third of DVR households have more than one DVR – representing 14 percent of all households having multiple DVRs. In 2005, just 8 percent of all households had a DVR.

In addition, 73 percent of all digital cable subscribers have used VOD, with 87 percent of this group having watched an on-demand program or movie in the past month. Overall, about 62 percent of digital cable subscribers used on-demand in the past month – compared with 52 percent last year.

“On-demand TV viewing in the forms of DVR and VOD, as well as Netflix streaming, have significantly increased in terms of usage and popularity over the past few years,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG. “Yet these on-demand TV platforms remain largely complementary to traditional TV services and viewing, with about 90 percent of all TV viewing in the U.S. still being via live TV.”

Other related LRG findings:

80 percent of DVR owners rate the service 8 to 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being excellent) – compared with 80 percent last year and 77 percent two years ago.

62 percent of cable VOD users rate the service 8 to 10 – compared with 60 percent last year and 55 percent two years ago.

63 percent of all Netflix subscribers rate the Watch Instantly feature 8 to 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being an extremely important feature or benefit of the Netflix service) – compared with 48 percent last year and 37 percent two years ago.

78 percent of Watch Instantly users use it to watch movies and TV shows on a TV set.

86 percent of Netflix households subscribe to a multichannel video service, and 43 percent with a multichannel video service subscribe to a premium service – similar to all households in the sample, and similar to Netflix households last year.